WaterYin, FireYang
by Hitomi Kalagari
Summary: Pain exploded on her back. She heard her name screamed over and over, growing more and more faint with each call. And then there was silence, no more yells. The last thing she heard before the darkness overcame her, Uncle, hurry, she's still alive!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: I don't own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any related titles.

Water-Yin, Fire-Yang

Chapter One

"_Aang, watch out!!" Aang whipped he bald head in Katara's direction, seeing the horror in her face. Zhou, behind him, pulled back an inflamed hand to throw a killing stroke of fire. Aang turned, too late to see the flame ball facing towards him. All he had time to do was to close his eyes and brace himself for the killing blow. Then a hurtling body crashed into him throwing him out of the path of the flames. His stunned mind took a minute to process that he wasn't dying and another moment to process that Katara was screaming in pain somewhere behind him. Aang raised his tortured body raised itself without him knowing it. Behind him Katara had gotten the full force of Zhou's blow. She lay, seemingly dead with her body badly burned. _

"_Katara, NO!" Aang tried to reach her, but a sharp pain in his foot prevented him. He looked down to see a stark white splinter of bone sticking out of his ankle. With a groan of pain he fell and passed out. _

"Aang? Wake up, come on Aang, wake up."

"Up Twinkle-Toes!" Toph's commanding voice cut through the haze in Aang's brain. He blinked his eyes rapidly, trying to wake himself up. Slowly, he raised his head and saw both Sokka and Toph peering at him concernedly, but no Katara.

"Where's Katara?" A pained look came onto both Toph and Sokka's faces. Aang thought he could see a small tear in the corner of Sokka's eye. Toph bit her lip and turned her blind eyes away.

"Guys, what's wrong?" A hint of worry entered Aang's voice, "Is she alright?" Toph put her hand on Sokka's arm.

"Do you want me to tell him?" She asked in a soft, sad voice. Sokka nodded, his jaw tight from trying hold back tears.

"Tell me what?" Asked Aang, looking from Toph's face to Sokka's. Toph bit her lip agian and put a comforting hand on Aang's arm.

"Aang...Katara...she...she..." Toph closed her eyes as she blinked tears frpm her eyes, unable to go on.

"She what?" Aang was starting to become panicked and he tried to get up, but his legs wouldn't support him. He collapsed back down on the sleeping bag under him. Toph took a deep breath, stealing herself for the news she was about to drop on Aang.

"Katara," Toph gathered all of her courage and said, "...she's...dead." Aang's eyes opened as wide as they could. Within them was a pleading for Toph's words to be untrue. But Toph's tortured face and the tears running down Sokka's face told him the real truth.

"You're joking, this isn't funny Toph. Were is she?" Aangs asked, tears spilling down his face. He was willing to believe anything but Katara being dead. \

"Aang, would I joke about this? Would Sokka joke about this? It's true, Zhou...he killed her." Toph was crying now too and her fist clenched uselessly against her sides at the thought of Zhou. Aang sat up and put his head in his hands, sobbing.

After what like seemed like centuries Aang finally grasped that Katara was dead and she wasn't coming back. Inside he felt like he was going to die form pain. She couldn't really be dead. But he knew that she was, Toph was right, she and Sokka wouldn't joke about this. Suddenly he wanted to see her. He didn't know why but he wanted to see her body.

"Toph," He managed to say through her tears, "...where is she?"

"Back where the fight happened. You were pretty badly hurt and Zhou was still attacking so we had to get out of there. We didn't have time to grab her. I'm sorry." Aang nodded and looked down. Even though it hurt he understood, keeping what was left of the group was more important then going back for Katara.

The remaining three friends sat in sorrowful silence for hours. Sokka and Toph had delt with Katara's death before Aang woke up by not thinking of anything but keeping Aang alive. But when Toph told Aang what had happen it brought it home to all of them that Katara wasn't just out getting water or gathering food; that she was dead.

Darkness fell quickly around the three. No one moved to get something to eat or to go to sleep. They just sat in the dark of the shock of losing Katara.

A/N: So, how'd you like it? I know it's depressing but it gets better. And don't ask me if Katara's really dead 'cause I won't tell you. Now, please R'n'R!!


	2. Chapter 2 Finally!

A/N: Are you ready

A/N: Are you ready? Dun dun dun dun…..drumroll I HAVE FINISHED THE SECOND CHAPTER!! D I feel so proud of myself! Lol.

Water-Yin, Fire-Yang

Chapter Two

The room was cold. No, the air was cold, but not only that, the room felt cold. It felt like metal. This was not a reality she wanted to wake in. She felt like she was trapped in water, separate from the world. But a feeling should have been comforting—but it wasn't. She didn't like this feeling of limbo.

"Is she going to be alright?" Voices pushed through her water filled world and she strained to draw her conscious closer to the surface.

"Yes, as far as I can tell, she'll be fine. She'll be up and about in about 3 weeks." A low oath, barely audible, filtered down to her leaden ears.

"That's nearly a month Uncle! We cannot keep her here for a month!"

"If you weren't prepared to care for her until she healed then you shouldn't have taken her aboard this ship! You of all people should know how long serious burns take to heal! If you weren't prepared to care for her than you shouldn't have left her there!"

"I couldn't leave her to die!" Soft voices had turned to shouts and her eyes fluttered open at their noise. Before her stood the last person she had ever wanted to see ever in her life; the ex prince of the Fire Nation—Zuko.

"Shh! Zuko, you've waken her." But Zuko did not respond, he merely glared into Katara's deep blue eyes, as if transfixed. Katara stared back; she could not tear her eyes away from his scarred face. But his face held no emotion, it was cold. Then without a word Zuko turned and swept from the room. Katara turned to Iroh, but he just shrugged.

"You should get some more rest miss. You still are hurt pretty badly." And he too left the room.

Alone, the room was so quiet the silence ached in her ears. Even though she felt completely rested, the silence was unbearable so she lay as still as possible and let her body float into sleep.

_Darkness pressed into her, suffocating her, squeezing the air out of her lungs. It was not so much darkness as it was nothing. But how could it be nothing, she was there. But she could not feel or see or breathe, but she was not dying. But she was in pain—squeezing, suffocating pain that made Katara wish for death._

_Out of nowhere a path snaked out in front of her. It was made of silver dust and seemed not to be more substantial than a cloud, but a compulsion came upon Katara to step on it. When her foot touched the silver, winding path it did not sink through as she had expected, but it held her weight. Katara took another step and then another. With each step the heaviness crushing her lifted. She walked faster and faster, she was running. Abruptly the path stopped, flinging her into a bright clearing. She looked up into a face, a face she had not expected to see. _

_The Avatar Aang stared her in the face as she lay in the grass, no; his eyes were not on her, they were looking through her. Katara was invisible to him. Or perhaps she did not exist. _

_"Come on Momo! Let's go play in the river! It'll be fun! Katara and Sokka, come too!" Cold dread flooded through the invisible Katara as she watched her solid counterpart laugh and run over to Aang with Sokka trailing behind. She had already heard these words before and she knew what came after. _

_Fire came after._

_"Aang!! Sokka!! Katara!! Run away! Run far away! Zhao is coming! He's coming! Go!!" Katara shouted herself horse but her companions and herself did not seem to hear her. Tears slowly slid down Katara's invisible face, she would have to witness her friends, people dear to her, hurt and maybe die. Again._

_Katara closed her eyes and waited. She was waiting for the scream that started it all, her own scream. Still Katara kept her eyes tightly closed; she had no desire to see the carnage of flames unfolding before her. _

_After an age silence feel. Complete and utter silence, not even the wind dared to rustle. Blue eyes opened slowly, they met charred trees, black earth and..._

"Wake up!" Zuko's face swam in front of her—his features blurred by her tears.

"What?" She was unexplainably annoyed with Zuko. She had no right to be, he had saved her from the sight she had dreaded in her dreams.

"You were crying! I thought something was wrong!"

"Well it was none of you're business!!" Zuko's face was angry. Very angry.

"I'm so sorry that I woke you up! It's obvious that you were having a _lovely_ dream. How silly of me to forget that when you're crying in your sleep that's a _good_ thing. I'll make sure never to make the same mistake again!" Zuko's voice was oozing sarcasm and instantly Katara felt bad for snapping at him. He had just woken her to see if she was alright.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you." Her voice was quiet and Zuko was silent so long Katara thought he hadn't heard her. But then…

"You're welcome…I suppose."

"You know, the things you say would sound a lot nicer if you didn't add 'I suppose' at the end of things!"

"Whatever. Go back to sleep!"

"Who are you to give me orders?" Zuko rubbed his temples.

"I like you better when you're sleeping, you're quiet!" Katara humped and then fell into what she believed to be a dignified silence until a yawn ruined it.

"See, you're tired, go to sleep!" He was right, but Katara wasn't going to admit it not even to herself, let alone him. In truth, she was tired but she was also frightened. She was frightened of what her subconscious would show her once she closed her eyes. Her fears would come to life in her dreams.

She did not know for certain Aang, Toph, and her brother were dead but the possibility seemed likely and logical. But she did not want them to be dead, who wants their loved ones to be dead? And when Katara had opened her eyes in her dream she was certain charred and death flesh would be the only things in her sight. Another treacherous yawn prevailed against her lips.

"Why don't you sleep?" Instead of being harsh, Zuko's voice had a softer tone to it. Curiosity maybe.

"I'm frightened." Katara sighed; she was only giving him more ammunition to torment her with.

"Frightened?" The expected note of amusement did not make an appearance. Instead something like sympathy crept in.

"Yes. I'm afraid of what my mind will show me."

"You're afraid to see you're friends dead." Katara swallowed and nodded. Even mention aloud the notion of her friends dying made tears choke her.

"They aren't dead."

"What?"

"They aren't dead." Katara waited on baited breath.

"If they were dead then you're friends bodies would have been left, like you were. They're alive, wherever they are." Hope swelled within Katara and as hope swelled, her eyelids drooped until they were closed and Katara fell into a peaceful sleep.

Zuko watched her sleep trying to catalogue his warring thoughts. In explaining to her that her friends were alive he had been nice and comforting. Both gestures were unacceptable to him; she was merely a water peasant to him. She meant nothing. And yet he had felt the need to comfort her when fear crept into her beautiful blue eyes. These feelings were new and strange to the ex-prince and he was quite sure he didn't like them.

Eventually Zuko stirred and left the room bearing the peacefully slumbering girl, but the thought he detested did not stay in the room with Katara. They exited with Zuko to torment him later.

A/N: Omg! It's done!! Yay!! I personally don't think it's that good. I might re-write it later. But the next chapter is going to be better I promise you! Thanks you guys! Review plz!!

-Hitomi 3


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Another chapter

Chapter Three 

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Grief is not a solid; it cannot be dropped on you head like a ton of bricks. Grief is not a liquid; it cannot pull you underneath and drown you. And grief is not a gas; it cannot fill your lungs and choke. Grief is not a state of matter. It is merely a feeling. But anyone who has experienced true grief knows differently. Those people know grief can indeed drop on you, it can indeed drown you, and it can indeed choke you. So, what does that make grief; a feeling or a state of matter?

A third choice is taken by most that have had this experience—grief is both a feeling and a state of matter. When someone has been lost grief hangs in the air. It's in each and every particle you breathe in. It clings to your lungs, suffocating you. It's in everything you drink or eat. It sits in you stomach and festers, poisoning you. And it waits in the dark for you to close your eyes. It enters your mind and sits there, haunting you.

Grief…

"Aang! Aang! Are you ok?" The young avatar snapped out of his musings. A worried Sokka hovered over him. Mentally, Aang shook himself. This was no time for him to be spacey. He had to be strong.

"Yeah Sokka, I'm ok." Both boys knew this was a lie. Aang was not alright. Neither was Sokka nor the other occupant of the grief saturated camp, Toph. But Sokka nodded. Both boys knew they weren't ready to discuss the reason for hurting. The pain was too fresh.

Both boys stared at each other for a moment. Neither of them knew what to do with the pain behind both their eyes. Each friend wanted to help the other, but how could they help each other when they already could not deal with their own pain. Toph cleared her throat gently.

"Where do we go from here?"

_Where do I go from here? _

Katara was quiet. But not from desire to be silent. At the moment there was nothing that Katara wanted more than someone to talk to her. Perhaps the kind old man who she had woken up to would come by. Maybe a nurse would come in, or whoever who had dressed her wounds and taken care of her. Surely it had been a nurse; Katara could not imagine a warship without a nurse or a doctor. She even halfway hoped if no one came to talk to her Zuko would. She was that desperate.

If she were to be truthful with herself, not very likely considering she did not like the truth as her own mind presented it to her, Katara would realize that she wanted someone to talk to because when you're talking to someone there isn't much thought involved besides the conversation. Simple, polite conversation would free Katara from thinking about her recent conversation with Zuko. Now that she knew her friends were alive her worry for them had dwindled to still being present but it was overshadowed by an overwhelming confidence in Aang to keep Sokka, Toph and himself safe. So other thoughts and worries were allowed to surface to the front of her mind. At the moment there was only one that presented Katara with a true problem.

Yesterday, or today, she didn't really know, the metal room had a significant lack of windows, when Zuko had arrived to find Katara crying in the clutches of a nightmare he had almost been, what was the word, not kind, not exactly. Whatever his actions it would be a long time until she could refer to him as _kind_. He was civil, that's the word; he was civil to her. He didn't laugh at her for crying or call her weak for fearing the images her mind presented to her while she slept. He even told her with certainty that her dearest friends were alive. Even when Zuko was being aggravating there was something different in his voice than his normal taunts. Was it sympathy perhaps? Katara had thought she heard some in his voice, but the little slip of favorable emotion could have been easily imagined. All in all, their encounter had not shown Zuko is his normal light. This was deeply confusing and worrying Katara.

She had heard of a state of mind that often happened to kidnap victims where they became fond of their captors after being with them for too long. Katara was not exactly a captive, she had been rescued, but she felt the situation applied mostly because she had been rescued by one her most hated enemies and she was contained within the ship because of her serious wounds. The words the old man had said while she was waking yesterday (today?) were true. The state of her back would take a month to heal at the least, probably more and that was just too much time in the company of firebenders.

_I will NOT allow myself, no matter how long I am kept here because of my injuries, to believe with any fiber of my begin that Zuko is a good person. His uncle perhaps, he seems like a kind old man, just on the wrong side, but never Zuko. I won't!_

The door screeched open. Katara winced at the sound of metal scraping on metal. The door to her room (prison?) obviously needed to be oiled.

"Oh dear, that's a bit squeaky isn't it? Ah well, nothing a bit of oil won't fix. How are you feeling my dear?" The man who had backed into the room carrying a laden tea tray turned out to be the kind, gray haired uncle of Zuko.

"Sore; but it's not nearly as bad as before. Thank you for asking." Katara answered truthfully and respectively. This man was good, she could tell, and after that he was her elder too. He chuckled deeply.

"Now out of curiosity my dear, what would you have said if my nephew, heaven forbid he asks, had inquired to how you were feeling?" Katara laughed as lightly as she could as not to aggravate the burns on her back and sides.

"I would probably said something along the lines of 'Well Zuko, it feels kinda like some pyromaniac had hurled a column of fire at my back, but I'm not really sure why.'" Katara thought about it for another second, "This is of course after I'm done dying of astonishment." Iroh chuckled his deep laugh again.

"This is true, I'm not sure I can imagine a universe in which my nephew would inquire about your health. Now I'm afraid I do not know your name. My nephew tends not to refer to people he does not particularly like with their names if he knows them at all." Katara smiled, Iroh's statement had mirrored exactly the information she had gathered from the few fights she and Zuko shared.

"My name is Katara." Iroh nodded.

"Katara. It's a pretty name. And my name is Iroh. I am Prince Zuko's uncle and guardian during his exile." A question burned in Katara's throat about the reasoning for Zuko's exile, but she held it in, it seemed rude to interrogate this kind man.

"Now you have been asleep for several days. Are you hungry?"

"Hey Aang, Sokka, you hungry?" Both boys looked up startled at Toph. She was making her way slowly from the fireside to their sides with a steaming pot of something. Aang and Sokka eyed the pot warily, it had not been previously aware to them that Toph could cook and they were worried there might have been a good reason for this.

"Sure Toph thanks." Said Aang, to be polite, it was obvious Toph was trying. Sokka, it seemed could not bring himself to say anything so he simply nodded and went to get bowls. When he came back Toph had set the pot down and Aang was trying to peak at what was inside. Each time he tried Toph would slap his hand down and scold him to wait. An unexpected smile spread across Sokka's face as he watched his friends being silly. But a tear accompanied the unexpected smile at the anomaly in the scene. In a perfect setting Toph would be sitting beside Aang laughing at the slaps and scolds and it would be…Katara standing over the pot of something surely delicious. But instead Toph was the one slapping and scolding while standing over something of a dubious taste. Sokka took a deep breath wiped the tear away and then hurried forward with the bowls.

There was silence as Toph ladled the soup carefully into the bowls Sokka brought. It did not look very appetizing. Its broth was thin and had a strong resemblance to water with veggies in it. The veggies themselves looked like they had not really been cooked, but just thrown in the pot as an afterthought. As Aang picked through his bowl he discovered chunks of mostly raw carrots, potatoes, overcooked peas, mostly raw onions and what looked like their skins, and some sad, limp looking bits of herbs. Sokka and Aang looked at each other deciding who would take the first bite. Aang did, being the one out of two who could think of something polite to say off the top of his head if it turned out to be nasty.

Both Toph and Sokka watched as Aang lifted some of the soup into his mouth and chewed, and chewed, and chewed. Finally he seemed to give up on whatever was causing the problem with chewing and swallowed with a gulp.

"Well Twinkle-Toes? Is it good?" Aang smiled at Toph.

"Yeah, it's good. Thanks Toph, I like it." Each word of that sentence was an absolute lie except the 'Thanks Toph' part. The only good thing that could be said about the soup was it was hot and then its praises ended there.

"Don't lie Aang, its probably horrible." Grumbled Toph. Sokka hurriedly sucked down a mouthful of soup; unlike Aang he completely skipped the chewing part, probably thinking it wasn't particularly helpful to the taste.

"Toph, Aang wasn't lying! This stuff is amazing!" And in front of the astonished gazes of his friends Sokka proceeded to quite literally inhale the soup in front of him. A small smile graced Toph's face.

"Thanks you guys. I guess it must be good for Sokka to be eating it like that." Aang nodded as enthusiastically as he could while wondering if Sokka had gotten a bowl that had actually tasted good, if his taste buds were dead or numb to the horribleness of the soup, or if Sokka was a better actor than Aang gave him credit for.

"Are you enjoying the food?" Katara smiled on the outside and the inside; here at last was the simple conversation that she had been craving.

"Yes, it's very different than anything I've ever had before. It's spicier than the foods I'm used to but I like it." Iroh beamed and lifted an ornate tea pot.

"That's very good, how about some tea to help with that spice?" Katara nodded and Iroh filled up a delicate cup matching the tea pot with a steaming fragrant liquid. "This is a very special kind of tea; it's a mixture of several, my own recipe. I hope you like it." Katara took a sip and wonderful taste filled her mouth. It was like nothing she had ever tasted before and she loved it.

"This is amazing! Thank you." Iroh beamed again, not often did he find someone who appreciated the sacred being of tea. Katara took another sip and then continued, "This tea set is beautiful. Where did you get it?" Iroh's eyes twinkled with the light of someone with a story to tell.

"An interesting story to this set now. I acquired it on campaign in the Earth Kingdom. But that is a story for a different day. I would imagine traveling with the Avatar and having your own people hurt so badly because of our war you wouldn't want to hear my tale of this tea pot." Katara smiled apologetically at the old man's wise face.

"I would like to hear to story at some point, perhaps when the war is all over. But you are dead on; I don't like to hear about the war." Iroh nodded kindly.

"Then let's talk about your accommodations while you are with us. You'll need clothes, and of course a new room, this isn't the most pleasant room is it?" Katara's eyes lit up—even though she hadn't thought about it she had just assumed that she would be in this stark metal room the entire month.

"I would like some windows." Iroh nods.

"We'll be docking soon and then I can go ashore with you and we can pick out some fabrics for clothes and things for your room. We can also find some nice tapestry weave to hang from your walls to hide the metal. There's a market it the port we're stopping that has a women who has some of the most beautiful blues and greens in the entire earth kingdom." Katara smiled enthusiastically and the two set to talking about fabrics and he details of Katara's new room.

In Iroh Katara had found the simple conversation that she wanted but she found more than that in the kind old man. She had found in him someone to confide in while she was enclosed in this metal warship. Katara had found someone to be kind to her…she had found a friend.

The stars were beautiful hanging the sky. Sokka lay awake watching them twinkle merrily. Now that the sky was down each remaining member of the avatar's gang had withdrawn to their own corner. Aang had retreated down to the river, Toph hid herself in an earth tent, and Sokka lay on his back in his sleeping bag staring at the stars. His grandmother had once told him that each star was the soul of someone who had dies and this night, when the stars were so bright Sokka was looking for the star that represented his sister's soul. It seemed silly; all the stars looked exactly the same. They all were little twinkles of white light, all the same, but Sokka felt that when he looked at his sister's star he'd know. The bright yellow-white moon also drew Sokka's attention. It seemed that everyone he had lost in this war hung in the sky. He knew where his mother's star was and hung in the moon.

Soft, nearly silent footsteps alerted Sokka and he sat up swiftly but there was no intruder, it was only Aang padding his way across the camp to Sokka's sleeping bag. When he reached Sokka's side he quietly lay down next to him.

"What are you doing?" Aang's voice was soft and sad. Sokka stretched an arm around the twelve year olds shoulders. He had never really realized how young Aang actually was. He always thought of him as the Avatar, not as a kid. That had been Katara's job, her job to realize Aang was just a kid and needed hugs and things like that. Now it seemed that the job fell to Sokka as he gave the kid next to him a one armed hug.

"I'm searching the stars for her." Aang nodded. "It's a legend amongst the Water Tribe that the dead soul's live on in the sky. Each time someone dies a new star appears. I'm looking for her star. We found our mother's star together, and now I'm going to find hers." Aang nodded again and turned his gray eyes to the skies to search too.

"How will we know when we've found her?" Asked Aang softly.

"You'll know, Katara and I knew when we'd found our mother's. She'll tell us when we've found her." To any other person this would have sounded ridiculous but it made perfect sense to Aang and so he searched the skies too.

"Sokka?"

"Yeah?" Sokka turned his head to look at the world's last hope. He had a question in his sad eyes.

"Did you really like Toph's soup?" Sokka smiled.

"No."

"Then why did you pretend like you died that much? Usually you tell people if you don't like their cooking." Sokka sighed; he'd been thinking why he had done what he did in cause Aang decided to ask and he thought he had a pretty good answer.

"I did it because she's trying really hard. Not just to make us cheer up, but she's trying to be K-katara—with the cooking and cleaning up. I didn't want to hurt her feelings when she was trying so hard. Katara's shadow is not a pleasant one to be in and I wanted Toph to feel like she could maybe help like Katara did." Aang thought about this and nodded. Then he turned his head to looking up at the stars to search for the girl who had held them all together for so long.

A/N: I thought about my original idea to spend each chapter with alternating groups but I realized that was turning into dismally short chapters so I thought of another way of changing settings, by repeating a phrase or an idea from one setting to the next. Tell me what you think you that and I am always open for ideas, so if you have an idea for a technique or plot tell me. I hope you liked that this was longer. Review please!

-Hitomi 3


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